Seldon strode into Amaryl's office, unannounced.
    "Yugo," he said abruptly¹, "the session with General Tennar has been postponed²." He seated himself in a rather pettish³ manner.
    It took Amaryl his usual few moments to disconnect his mind from his work. Looking up finally, he said, "What was his excuse?"
    "It wasn't he. Some of our mathematicians⁴ arranged a week's postponement⁵ so that it wouldn't interfere⁶ with the birthday celebration. I find all of this to be extremely annoying."
    "Why did you let them do that?"
    "I didn't. They just went ahead and arranged things." Seldon shrugged⁷. "In a way, it's my fault. I've whined⁸ so long about turning sixty that everyone thinks they have to cheer me up with festivities."
    Amaryl said, "Of course, we can use the week."
    Seldon sat forward, immediately tense. "Is something wrong?"
    "No. Not that I can see, but it won't hurt to examine it further. Look, Hari, this is the first time in nearly thirty years that psychohistory has leached⁹ the point where it can actually make a prediction. It's not much of one-it's just a small pinch of the vast continent of humanity-but it's t lie best we've had so far. All right. We want to take advantage of that, see how it works, prove to ourselves that psychohistory is what we think it is: a predictive science. So it won't hurt to make sure that we haven't overlooked anything. Even this tiny bit of prediction is complex and I welcome another week of study."

分享到：